Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Secrets to My Significance ‘N’ 2012

Sermon Date: January 01, 2012

Pericope: Luke 22: 24 – 30

Sermon Text: Luke 22: 29, 30

Introduction: We all have a secret. We want to be significant. We desire to have impact. God put that desire deep inside each of us. No one wants the dash on their tombstone to be meaningless. We want to succeed at parenthood, as a spouse, and as an employee. Feeling that way is not a matter of false piety.
God put that desire deep inside each of us. From the very beginning he gave us dominion. That desire is crucial to our service for the Lord. We can’t complete or carry our all that he needs us to if we aren’t significant. God called you to be significant!
In the text, it is the night before the crucifixion. The disciples are disputing over who is the greatest or most significant to Jesus. This is not the first time that this dispute has come up. Their mothers even got involved in the dispute. Matthew 20:21 tells of a mother who recognized that Jesus was going places and wanted her boys to be with him. The disciples were like us, they had the same desire to be significant. Their dispute is proof. Jesus recognized this desire and rewarded them.

Jesus recognizes our desire and has provided a roadmap to significance for us. You must serve selflessly, seek others and their needs, and share what you have.

Point 1: Serve selflessly…vs. 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.
Phil 2: 21 in the Message Bible states, “stop thinking about yourself long enough to help somebody else”.
Jesus tempered the same debate in Mark 9: 34 & Luke 9: 46 by telling them to be like a child with humility and service.

Ambition is a tool that can further the kingdom if properly guided. When someone does not have ambition, not wanting to be or do anything, we call them lazy. We have it engrained in us to be someone, from the time that we are a little child. To achieve this, we must serve selflessly. Doing something for someone else can provide a sense of self worth.

Work for the applause of God not for the applause of man. John 5: 44 How can you believe you can accept the praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? Don’t serve selfishly. When you can serve selflessly, seeking others and their need will come naturally.

Point 2: Seek others and their needs not your own vs. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? It is not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as who serves.

In the text, it is Passover and everyone it sitting at the table. The servants have been dismissed. Jesus is conversing with the disciples about who is greater the server or those being served. Typically, the server is not viewed as being as important as those being served. However, Jesus reminds the disciples that he is seen as the Great One and he has been serving and seeking the needs of others before his own.

At the beginning of a new year, we tend to become focuses on self. Instead of looking at self, search for ways to make things happen for others. Make souls your priority.The soul that you reach for Him will determine how significant your 2012 will be. Acts 20: 22 And now compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

Don’t be afraid that God will forget that you are also in line. He will not run out. Phil 2: 2, 3 Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. 4 Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Msg Bible.

Point 3: Share what you have…vs. 30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Jesus is going to share His reign and what he has to eat with us. If God did not want us to be great, he would not have made us his child and given us a throne. Jesus is not moved by your being raised up.


This is the way Paul put it. 2 Cor 9: 6 – 11 6 Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. 7 I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving. 8 God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. 9 As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. 10 This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, 11 wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

Life Application: Sow wise decisions reap the harvest in 2012...

1. When the opportunity to serve presents itself I will decide to do so!
2. When the opportunity to seek souls and witness for Christ presents itself I will decide to do so!
3. When the opportunity to share my resources or myself presents itself I will decide to do so!

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